


i'm saying goodbye

by supaprittiest



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Role Reversal, F/M, skye is hydra
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-01-19
Updated: 2015-01-27
Packaged: 2018-03-08 05:09:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 5,623
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3196517
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/supaprittiest/pseuds/supaprittiest
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>au where skye is hydra</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. stumble

“Grant,” she says, taking on a surprised tone as she watches him creep down the stairs to Vault D. “I didn’t think Coulson would let you down here.”

“He didn’t,” he says simply, not bothering to explain. “He’s out right now, which means you have about fifteen minutes to explain everything.”

Skye pushes her hair back, and the knots catch on her fingers. He notices the poor living conditions, but doesn’t say anything. Perhaps he’ll mention it to Coulson later.

And then he notices the scars on her wrists. He must’ve been staring for a moment too long, because Skye follows his gaze and nods to herself.

“It’s been a little rough,” she admits. “They had to sedate me for a while to keep me from doing any real damage. But I’m good now, and I’m ready to make up for what I’ve done.”

“It won’t be easy,” he warns. “Explaining why you did it would be a good start.”

Reluctantly, she tells him all about how Garrett saved her from federal prison, and manipulated her into HYDRA. How he set up the exact scenario for Coulson to find her and eventually bring her on as a consultant. How she acted like she didn’t know how to do anything. She’s never liked keeping secrets from him, and there were times where she had almost slipped, and it feels good to finally let it all go.

“Why didn’t you just tell us?” he asks, feeling more exasperated than anything.

“Oh sure, because that’s what all good undercover agents do,” she snaps, but recognizes that it isn’t really her place to make snide comments, since she is the one inside the cell. He shoots her a look, but doesn’t say anything. It’s quiet between them for a while.

“I can imagine you have a lot to say to me right now,” she says sheepishly.

“Not really,” he says, and she would almost rather that he would scream at her. Punch her. Kick her until she’s a crumpled heap on the floor. Because at least then, he might’ve gotten it all out of his system. His words, she could deal with, but she had no idea what was going on inside of his head. She couldn’t help him understand what he wouldn’t share with her. She needed his approval, more than anyone else’s. She had gone undercover before, pretended to be in love with targets, but it had never been as real as her love for Grant.

“Then I guess your fifteen minutes is up,” she mutters, stepping back a little. She notices the way his jaw clenches, and the muscles in his neck move a little, like he’s about to say something, but apparently decides better of it, because then he’s climbing the stairs, and she prepares herself for the darkness that is to come.

 


	2. fall

The next time he visits, he has a neat list of questions, and two requests. The first is that she sit on the floor with him, and she doesn’t question why. She appreciates it though, it makes her feel like they’re on equal ground, when in reality, he has the upperhand.

 

He asks her questions about HYDRA agents- where to find them, how to recognize them, approximately how many there are, stuff like that. She answers all the questions truthfully, and tells him that she’s done lying to him, although she’s not sure if that even means anything anymore.

 

“One last question,” he says, looking down at the folded piece of paper in his hands, and she can tell that he’s obviously thought about it a lot because he doesn’t even need to read it off the page. But the way he’s pausing makes her think that he’s forgotten. She’s about to push when he finally asks.

 

“When we kissed in Providence.. Was that real?”

 

The question hits her hard- it isn’t something she would’ve expected from him, ever. Maybe from a 16 year old who found out his girlfriend had been cheating on him, but never from Mr.Grumpy-Masculine-Tough-Guy, Grant Ward. She hadn’t realized how insecure he really was until it was too late, and feels the guilt all over again.

 

“Yeah, I thought it was,” she says in a defeated tone, because despite all the lies she had told him, the one thing that had been constant were her feelings for him. He sits on the floor and mulls it over in silence, avoiding eye contact with her.

 

He gets up and leaves without another word, leaving her to herself once again.

 

\---

 

“Really Ward? Of all the questions, you ask if that was real?” Coulson scolds, although his seemingly invariable smirk makes him seem less daunting.

 

“You might’ve done the same,” Ward mumbled, though he didn’t want to picture Coulson making out with Skye over some scotch. In fact, the thought alone made him feel a little nauseous, and it wasn’t just because of how disgusting the idea was. Despite everything she had done, Ward still got jealous when he thought of her with other guys. And maybe he was wrong to feel that way, but that didn’t stop him.

 

“Maybe,” Coulson agreed, but his tone is still stern. “We got some good intel though. Enough to keep us busy for the next little while.”

 

“What are we going to do with Skye in the interim?” he asked, following Coulson as he travelled around his office, sorting files and moving things around.

 

“What do you mean? She’s a prisoner, she’s going to do time for what she did. Do you need to go back to the basics, Agent Ward? Has Simmons checked you for a concussion? Because you’re sure acting like a dumb ass today, and if you don’t get it under control, I’ll have you enrolled in boot camp,” Coulson snapped.

 

“I just meant how long are we going to trap her down there for- we can’t keep her there indefinitely, or at least not in those conditions,” he argued, realizing that he was on fragile ground and that he needed to choose his words carefully if he wanted to stay on Coulson’s good side.

 

“We can keep her there indefinitely. You know why?” When Ward didn’t answer, Coulson continued. “Because I’m the director, and I said so. She betrayed us, Agent Ward. You seem to be having a hard time remembering that. You’re dismissed.”

  
“Oh, and Ward? Those ‘conditions’ are the consequences that she has to deal with for what she did. I would’ve thought you’d be used to this by now.”


	3. still learning to love

Three weeks and countless morally questionable decisions from Coulson later, Grant Ward finds himself back in Vault D, this time, without a list of questions from his commanding officer.

 

“Gee, you just can’t stay away from me, can you?” she teases, rising from where she sits on her bed, and approaching the barrier between them. He doesn’t need to ask her to sit on the floor anymore, it’s become part of their routine.

 

“Coulson’s planning to take you to your father,” he says gravely, ignoring her comment.

 

“What?” Of course, there was no way for her to know about how Coulson had been tracking down her father. Ward had wrestled with it for days, trying to decide whether or not to tell her. If Coulson knew, he’d be in a lot of trouble, but she had the right to know, and he wasn’t going to be the one to take that right from her.

 

“Raina gave us some intel on him,” he explained. “We tracked him down, and he said he’d help us take down Whitehall and give us more information on the Obelisk if we hand you over.”

 

“He knows about the Obelisk?” she asks, sounding intrigued and scared at the same time.

 

“He’s not what you think, Skye,” he warns. “He’s killed so many people, at your expense. He thinks it’s endearing. That the end will justify the means.”

 

“Raina told me about him, when Garrett brought her on to recreate the GH-325 serum,” she recalls. “She thinks so highly of him, makes him sound so.. devoted, I guess.”

 

“Well, she’s not wrong,” he agrees, unlocking the tablet that he had brought with him. He pulls up the surveillance footage from the apartment that they had found him in. Two bodies lay on the floor, blood is everywhere. Judging by her reaction, she hadn’t expected this. She examines the images for a moment longer than may be appropriate, and then she meets his gaze.

 

“I can’t go with him,” she whispers. “Help me, Grant. Please.”

 

He wishes he could reach across the barrier and place a reassuring hand on her shoulder. To hug her close to him and let her know that he won’t let anything happen to her.

 

“I’m going to be the one taking you there,” he informs her. “I’ll be with you the whole time, and if things get bad, I’ll protect you.”

 

“I don’t need protecting,” she reminds him. He frequently forgets that she isn’t actually a rookie, that it was all an act. “But thank you.”

“I’ve got your back,” he corrects, and she gives him a sad smile.

 

“Why won’t you just hate me?” she asks, looking up at him with damp eyes. “I betrayed you. I manipulated you. Almost everything you know about me, is a lie. And yet you keep coming down here, treating me like a friend, when I should be your enemy.”

 

“Because, I’ve been undercover, and I know what it’s like to form attachments with your targets, and you said it yourself- those feelings were real. I’m not going to be the one to throw those feelings away, not right now anyways,” he says, and again, he sounds _childish_ for saying those words. “But I guess we’ll find out if they’re still real when I get to know the real you.”

 

“The real me isn’t that different,” she admits. “But she knows how to shoot a gun, and she’s not completely clueless all the time.”

 

“You put me through all that, when you knew perfectly well how to pull the trigger without saying ‘bang’ all the time?” Ward asked, sounding about as offended as he could get.

 

“Yeah, sorry about that. But I had you fooled,” she says, cracking a smile. “Sometimes you’d get all angry and it was so hard not to laugh.”

  
He gets quiet after that, but a wistful smile still tugs at the corner of his lips. She wishes she could lean through the barrier and put their foreheads together and hold hands, and tell him that despite everything, she really did love him. 


	4. just starting to fall

When the day arrives for her to finally meet her father, she’s surprised that Coulson comes to say goodbye to her.

“You probably have a lot left to say to me, don’t you?” she says, although it doesn’t really sound like a question. Because she knows Coulson, and she knows that he’s more hurt than he lets on.

“There’s nothing you can do, Skye. You betrayed all of us. Everyone told me you were a risk, but you convinced me otherwise,” he says. “I trusted you, I thought that we were going to prove everyone wrong, and then you turn out to be working as a Nazi spy?”

“I’m not a Nazi,” she defends, and he shoots a glare at her that she had always hoped she would never be on the receiving end of.

“Your father’s coming. He’s going to take you away. I don’t know where you’re going, but you had better stay the hell away from me, and my team. After today, we won’t hesitate to hurt you, the way you hurt us,” he says, his lip curling into a sneer. Her stomach sinks like a lead weight, but she doesn’t mention Grant.

“After Grant told you everything, we decided it would be best if your dad came and picked you up himself,” he explained, as if reading her mind. “You probably won’t see him for a long time.”

And then Coulson leaves. She feels like crying, but the tears don’t come to her. Instead, she sits on the floor and stares at the staircase across from her, counts them, then counts backwards, until she feels the stress starting to ebb away slowly.

The door opens, and she recoils, expecting her father, but instead, it’s Grant. He flies down the stairs, and doesn’t even bother to shut the door. It’s sloppy and very unlike him. She stands, sensing the urgency.

“Skye, your father’s on his way to get you, I’m not going to be taking-”

“I know,” she says sadly. “Coulson came down here, told me everything.”

“I’ll follow you,” he offers. “I could take the SUV.”

“Coulson would fire you,” she reminds him, but his face remains stern. “You can’t be serious, Grant.”

“Unfortunately, I am. Coulson’s gone nuts, and I don’t want to be here when it all backfires,” he explains, as if he had been planning this for weeks. It doesn’t make Skye feel any better though.

“But what are you going to do if you’re not in SHIELD?” she asks, because she has a hard time imagining him doing anything else other than kicking ass.

“I might go into the private sector,” he muses. “We’ll talk about our life-long dreams later. I just wanted you to know that I’ve still got your back. Good luck, rookie.”

 **  
** _“Not a rookie,”_ she reminds him, but he’s already half way up the stairs.


	5. say something

She willingly goes with her father, who leads her out of the vault, and through the hall, where she tries her best to not feel incredibly self-conscious as everyone stares at her. Her eyes meet Jemma’s- someone who she might’ve called her best friend, but is only met with betrayal and incredible pain. She mouths the words ‘I’m sorry’,  but Jemma doesn’t want to hear it.

The next pair of eyes she meets is Ward’s, and they are nothing but reassuring. Why couldn’t he just hate her like everyone else? She tears her gaze away from him and follows her father out the door, and out to his van.

“I’m sorry about the way Coulson was treating you,” he says. “Locking you up like that- I’m sure you didn’t deserve it.”

“I’m sure I did,” she mutters, earning a look from her father, but she doesn’t delve into the details.

“Well, this isn’t exactly how I imagined this would go,” he comments, starting the engine. She doesn’t feel safe riding in a car with someone who is infamous for their rage episodes, but she swallows her fear. Grant is going to follow her, and make sure she’s alright. She knows she can take on her father without him, but she’s grown used to having him there, guarding her. A dangerous frame of mind. “I always thought it would involve a bit less... secret agencies, I suppose.”

“Me too,” she said sadly, looking out the window.

\---

As soon as Coulson retreats to his office, Grant is gone with nothing but a duffel bag packed with essentials. He had prepared it not hours before, and had hidden it close to the exit.

He realised his plan to hijack the SHIELD armored vehicle may have been a bit of a stretch- Coulson would be pissed to begin with, but he definitely did not need the director of SHIELD tracking him down and trying to repossess the stolen vehicle.

So he sets out to find the closest abandoned vehicle, and doesn’t have to go far. He finds a small car parked on the side of the road across from a strip mall. He picks the lock, and hotwires it, and then he’s gone.

He follows the road, relying on memory to track down Cal Zabo’s apartment. There’s a corny song playing on the radio, but he doesn’t think to change it. He’s too focused. He scans the road ahead for any sign of the silver van that he would recognize, but they’re too far ahead.

Or, they’re too far gone. The possibility of losing track of Skye is too frightening for him to accept, but he can’t deny that it is a possibility.

To calm himself, he imagines himself crumpling up the thought, and packing it into a tight box which is almost over-flowing with other crumpled up thoughts about Skye. He could just as easily imagine the box being empty, but he doesn’t.

There are several vans of the same make and colour that he passes, but upon closer inspection, he realizes that none contain Skye.

Growing frustrated and impatient, he pulls the car over in a ditch and abandons it. The original owners would’ve notified the police and the last thing he needs is a bunch of cops trailing after him. He grabs the duffel bag from the backseat and digs out the SAT phone that he had packed, before remembering that Skye had been _taken_ , not the other way around. She wouldn’t have a phone on her.

Like a dog with its tail between his legs, he started the trek back to the Playground.

\---

The ensuing conversation between herself and the man who calls himself her father was a relatively docile one to start, and aside from a couple shouted words, no conflict breaks out.

“I’m going to get some air,” she decides after another comparison to her late mother, and he allows her (like he could stop her). Stepping out of the dingy motel room and into the near empty parking lot, she hugged her arms around herself and drew a breath.

“Alright Grant, you can come out of your hiding spot now,” she calls out, looking around the parking lot. There isn’t a lot of cover, not so much as a stolen car. In the year or so that she had been ‘operating’ beside him, she had gotten used to his techniques- hell, he had taught her almost all of them- she knew that hiding and staking out was hardly his style.

She juts one hip out, waiting somewhat impatiently for him to reveal himself.

**  
And he doesn’t.**


	6. i'm giving up on you

It became apparent that Grant wasn’t there. She did her best to not be too hurt by the matter- she should’ve expected this. She _betrayed_ him, of course he’d want to get even with her. She had no right to be upset over this.

She slips back into the motel room, where her father was waiting for her.

“Sorry if I upset you with my comment about your mother,” he says, and she feels a little guilty about making such a fuss.

“It’s alright,” she says, but doesn’t give any indication of wanting to know what happened to her mother. “So tell me more about this city.”

His eyes light up, and he tells her about the blue angels that fell from the sky.

\---

“Agent Ward,” Coulson barks. “Where the hell have you been?”

“Taking a moment for myself,” he says. He’s not about to let this maniac take away his personal time.

“We needed you,” Coulson growls.

“Sorry that my personal matters are ‘inconvenient’ for you, but you don’t own me, despite what you might think. This is just a job, Coulson,” he reminds his C.O., earning him a full-on scowl.

“If it’s really ‘just a job’ for you, then go find one somewhere else,” he rebukes.

“You make all these threats, but you never follow through with them,” Ward observes. “If I walked out on you, you’d be lost. Good luck finding another specialist that’ll meet your unrealistic standards.”

And he’s gone again, slinging his duffel bag over his shoulder and leaving the way he had come. Exiting the Playground wasn’t as easy as just driving out the parking lot, and involved a five-kilometer hike in the wilderness. The first hike, he had felt motivated, and breezed through the unmapped forest, but this time, he felt lost. Hopelessly and helplessly lost.

\---

“Wait, we’re _going?_ ” Skye blurted out. Her father nods eagerly, as if he had promised her a trip to Disneyland and was waiting for some kind of ecstatic reaction. “What if I don’t want to become some creepy alien?”

 

“Daisy, don’t be ridiculous,” he laughs, and she almost cringes. “You’re not an alien. You’re just more evolved than everyone else.”

“Look, I’m not some insecure teenager- I don’t _need_ comforting, and I don’t _need_ to ‘evolve’ into some super human! My job is to blend in, take things in without being seen, and I can’t do that if I’ve got feathers or skin stretched over where my eyes should be! You say you care about me, why can’t you just let this go? Let _me_ go?” she shouts, losing whatever shred of patience for the man who claims to be her father.

“And where would you go? Huh? Mr. Coulson was all too thrilled to get rid of you, you’ve been passed from foster home to foster home- all your life you’ve been traded off, and here I am, offering you a chance at a real  _family,_ and all you want to do is leave! No one has wanted you around for long, except _me!_ ” he rises from where he sat on the edge of the twin-sized bed, towering over her and practically shaking with unharnessed rage that makes her want to shrink away. This was what Ward was warning her about.

 **  
**“We’re going to the damn city, and if you still want to leave after that, be my guest,” he asserts, and there’s nothing she can do to convince him otherwise, so she agrees.


	7. Chapter 7

A few hours pass, and then it becomes clear why her father chose a pay by the hour motel. He never planned on staying long. She had originally thought that it was to be inconspicuous, and she was ready to applaud him for it.

 

He carries her belongings (someone at SHIELD had packed them up for her) out to the van, and slams the trunk shut. She slides into the passenger’s seat and fastens her seat, wishing she had her phone, or her laptop, or anything to distract herself from her chronic guilt and self loathing.

 

\---

 

Grant finally emerges into a city, and is grateful for the level footing. He fishes out his phone from his duffel bag, and dials her number. It’s a long shot, but he has to try.

 

He’s surprised when it doesn’t go straight to an automated voicemail, which would mean she hadn’t switched numbers. A spark of hope ignites inside him, even though she doesn’t answer.

 

\---

 

“My phone is ringing,” she says to her father over some old rock music on the radio. “Can I answer it, or is that not allowed?”

 

“Of course you can,” he says almost sweetly, as if his earlier tantrum had never happened. She twists around in her seat and unzips the bag in the backseat, and digs around her clothes for her phone. Her fingers brush over the cool surface of it and she grasps it, flopping back in her seat.

 

Missed Call from Grant Ward

 

Her heart jumps. She knows better than to call him back in front of her father, but she shoots him a text.

 

Text: on our way to san juan, meet us there

 

“Aren’t you going to call them back?” her father asks, taking his eyes off the road to look at her quickly.

 

“I’d rather not talk to him,” she lies, but it’s convincing enough for him to drop the subject.

 

Text: when?

 

“How far are we from the city?” she asks, doing her best to come across as cooperative to get a bit more slack from him.

 

“We’re on our way to the airport, Daisy,” he says with a chuckle. “Did you think we were really going to drive to Puerto Rico?”

 

“Pssh, no,” she says sheepishly, turning back to her phone.

 

Text: we’re on our way to the airport in washington. be there.

 

About two minutes pass before Grant texts back, letting her know that he’ll be at the airport soon.

 

“We’ll be there in about three hours,” her father reasons, glancing down at his watch. “You can fall asleep if you’d like- I don’t mind.”

 

And she does, because after all the stress that she’s endured, she finds it difficult to keep her eyes open, and her head hurts.

 

\---

 

When they arrive at the airport, it doesn’t take very long for her to spot Grant. She’d recognize those cheekbones from a mile away. It takes a lot of self-control for her to keep her gaze off of him, to divert her father’s attention away from him, although she doesn’t know how well they know each other, if at all.

 

Her father checks their luggage and takes her through security (she’s almost nervous, but she hasn’t been given the privilege of her own weapon for months and has nothing to hide). The whole while, Grant is there, lingering in the background, like he had promised.

 

“I can’t believe you can just sleep for three hours,” her father remarks while they wait to board their plane. She almost scoffs.

 

“I’ve done better,” she boasts. Three hours was nothing, compared to some of her other naps. There had been one time when she had been hiding inside a crate on a van to get over the Russian border, and she had slept for about six hours while curled in on herself. The crick in her neck that followed was anything but pleasant, and she felt like she had been run over by a truck afterwards, but she was still proud of it none-the-less.

 

She catches Grant’s eye, but his face remains impassive. She whips out her phone and texts him from across the room. Before she got all ‘involved’ in Hydra, she would’ve thought this to be shallow and lame, but she had found an appreciation for it recently.

 

Text: you look like a total dork with that hat btw

 

He glares at her, and she only sees out the corner of her eye.

 

Text: i could go back right now if u dont start appreciating me

 

“Who are you texting?” her father asks, and she does her best not to reel over with panic.

  
“One of my friends from SHIELD,” she says. It’s not a lie, but it’s just vague enough to keep him from pressing much further. “The only one that doesn’t hate me.”


	8. Chapter 8

The temple is dark, and she honestly has no idea where they’re going, but her father seems to have it all mapped out, with Raina.

They picked her up on the way to the temple, where Skye’s father re-introduced them, and Skye tried not to be too cold or callous towards her “sister”. Of course, they weren’t actually related, but her father kept referring to them as sisters. Skye tries her best not to vomit.

She had worked with Raina a couple times before Hydra revealed itself, and quite frankly, she couldn’t stand the docile tone of voice that Raina used, no matter the situation. After she realized how much she hated listening to Raina, everything else that the other girl did just bothered her, right down to the way she blinked those big doe eyes.

“I can’t go with you down there,” explains her father, pointing to a round room with a glowing pedestal in the middle. “Raina, you know what to do.”

Raina takes the Obelisk from her bag casually, like it’s perfectly normal to carry around something that usually kills anyone who touches it. In her purse, of all places. Skye makes a mental note to avoid Raina’s purse at all costs, to avoid any other freaky transformations.

“Come on, sister,” Raina coos in that sickeningly sweet voice, and enters the room. Reluctantly, Skye follows. She wishes she could put up a fight, but her father’s last episode is still fresh in her mind, and she does not want a repeat of that.

Raina hardly has to place the Obelisk on the pedestal- it flies from her hand and floats onto the pedestal like a magnet. The circular room closes, obstructing her father from view. She could strangle Raina right then and there, and be done with it. Unfortunately, it seems the only way out is by performing whatever creepy ritual Raina has in mind.

The Obelisk breaks apart- no, it unfolds, revealing a bright blue crystal inside, which grows as the walls around it collapse. Suddenly, a burst of air knocks Skye back a bit, and at first, she thinks that there’s been an explosion, but there is none. She looks down at her wrist and finds a black substance creeping up her arm.

“Raina! What the hell is going on?!” she shouts, losing whatever shred of control that she had. Soon, her entire body is being encased in what looks like the same substance that the Obelisk turns normal people into, and so is Raina’s.

She’s completely covered in what appears to be some kind of charcoal, but she isn’t dead. The rock starts breaking, and she has enough room to wiggle her fingers. And then she breaks free entirely.

And simultaneously starts an earthquake.

Being underground isn’t a good place to be during an earthquake. The roof of the temple starts dropping dirt and rocks, and she doesn’t know how to stop it. The door grinds open, and she darts out as soon as the opening is wide enough. She exits the way she came in, and yanks on the rope for her father to pull her up.

“How’d it go?” he asks, but she just pushes past him and exits the stupid temple, all while the earth trembles under her feet. They had a deal, and she held up her part- she’s free.

When she finds Grant (he’s leaning against the watch tower, where it isn’t barricaded for tourists), the quake stops. She looks over him, studying him almost. He’s ditched the newsboy bap for a baseball hat, and wears shorts rather than his usual jeans, but she doesn’t comment on it.

“Let’s get out of here before he does,” Grant suggests, grabbing her arm and dragging her along to meet his long stride, by habit. She considers yanking her arm free, but instead, she pulls up just enough to join their hands and almost has to jog to keep up with him.

\---

They don’t have to look far for a cheap place to stay overnight to sort out their next plans. It’s no dingy motel, but it’s not exactly a five-star, all inclusive resort either. It’s just a cheap hotel with a view of the ocean.

“I can’t believe you followed me all the way to San Juan,” she says after emerging from the shower. “After everything- how can you still not hate me?”

“SHIELD was built almost entirely on second chances,” Grant explains, carefully choosing his words. “Coulson’s forgotten that, but I still believed in second chances, even if you didn’t exactly deserve one.”

His words sting, but she doesn’t argue with him. Instead, she sits on the other twin bed, across from him, like in the vault. She has to remind herself that this isn’t an interrogation, but it doesn’t exactly change anything.

“I loved you, Skye,” he says, meeting her eyes. She notices the way he uses past tense on the word ‘love’, and braces herself for the pain that’s about to come. “You keep telling me that it was real, but I’ve been undercover, Skye. I’ve dealt with the aftermath. I’m not supposed to believe you.”

“I don’t think S.O.’s are supposed to fall in love with their trainees either,” she pointed out, earning her a glare, and she wishes she hadn’t said anything at all. “Sorry.”

“I was your enemy all along, when we were still a part of SHIELD,” she explains, filling in the silence that was starting to settle between them. “But neither of us are anymore, and who’s to tell us what’s good or bad, or who’s our enemy or who’s not?”

“I guess we’ll have to decide for ourselves,” he says, and she can’t help it when her eyes flit down to his lips. When she looks back up at his eyes, they’re leaning in towards her, and she feels the pull.

“Grant...,” she whispers. “I need you to know that I’d never hurt you. Not on purpose, okay?”

“I know,” he whispers back, and that’s all the confirmation that she needs, so she tilts her head up a little, and kisses him.

They had kissed before, but it had been sweet and soft, but this was completely different. This was rough and intoxicating, and so good. She pushes him back onto the mattress, and threads her fingers through his hair. He holds her hips steady, but doesn’t hold her back when she grinds against him.

She loves having this much control over him.

His thumbs hook under the waistband of her jeans, and she wriggles, giving him permission to yank them off. He rubs her through her panties, which are already wet, and she has to brace herself on his neck. So much for control.

The ground beneath them rumbles, not quite an earthquake, but just a little tremble.

“Skye..,” says Grant cautiously. “What happened in that temple?”

“I don’t know,” she admits, feeling insecure suddenly. “But something isn’t right.”

“Skye, I think you’re causing these earthquakes,” he suggests in a gentle tone, holding her wrists to steady her. Of course, the thought had crossed her mind, but she never thought it could be an actual possibility.

The ground vibrates again as her eyes well up with tears when she accepts the inevitable.

 **  
**“There’s something very wrong with me,” she says gravely, meeting his gaze.


End file.
